Wellington seeks to fill skills gap

Film Wellington and the New Zealand Film and Television School, in association with Wellington City Council, have developed a pilot internship scheme for aspiring location and production managers.

These roles are vital to attract screen projects to Wellington because location and production managers are usually the first point of contact for large international productions enquiring about filming.

However, there is a lack of experienced location scouts and managers in the region, says Gerard Quinn, chief executive of Grow Wellington which runs Film Wellington.

“Wellington’s screen sector is very strong but we’ve identified this particular skills-gap. If the pilot programme’s successful, we’ll look to train two interns each year for these crucial roles.”

This year’s intern is Bonnie Philp, who was selected from NZ Film and Television School graduates. She will be based in regional film office Film Wellington for six months through to January 2015.

Film Wellington intern Bonnie Philp

The internship involves training in all the skills a location or production manager needs: location permitting, location scouting and photography, community engagement, health and safety, traffic management and more. The internship will also involve on-set experience with some of New Zealand’s top crew as well as location scouting for major projects.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to be involved in promoting Wellington and New Zealand, as well as everything our film industry has to offer,” says Ms Philp, who earlier this year became the recipient of the WIFT Robin Laing scholarship.